Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot

by Equimorto

Return Later

.

"What is this place?"

"It's a waiting room. The waiting room."

"What for?"

"For waiting. You stay here and wait, until it's time to leave again."

"And why am I here?"

"Because you're waiting right now."

"How do I leave?"

"You wait. When your waiting time is over, you get to leave."

"I don't want to be here."

"You can't do anything about it. It won't last long this time, if that makes you feel better. But you don't get to decide when you leave, all you can do here is wait."

"How did I end up here?"

"It happened. You should remember. You will remember once you're done waiting, if you don't now, though you might not remember about the waiting room."

"Why?"

"You forgot. You forgot about the last time you were here. The first time you were here. It lasted a long time, that time. You weren't sure the wait would ever end."

"Doesn't it always end?"

"Maybe not. We can't know. Unless you waited forever, you could never say for sure there is an endless wait. But it felt like it might have been like that, the last time. You remembered how you got here, that time."

"What would happen if I did wait forever?"

"Nothing. You'd just wait. That's all you do here."

"What about you?"

"I'm waiting too. I'm waiting for you to be done waiting. We can talk while we wait, but there's not much we can talk about."

"Is there anyone else here?"

"Not right now. Sometimes someone else is waiting too, but I don't know if you can meet them. You can't do anything here but wait."

"I don't like it here."

"I know."

"Why am I here?"

"This is the place where you wait."

"How did I get here the first time?"

"You'll remember when you remember what that time was like. Or maybe you'll figure it out. Maybe you will remember after you're done waiting, this time."

"How will I know when I can leave?"

"You'll know. And you will leave."

"What if I didn't want to?"

"You can't stay here when it's time to leave. This is the waiting room, when the waiting is done you need to leave. You can't leave when it's not time to yet, either, there's waiting still to be done."

"Why is this time different from the last one? Why won't I have to wait as much?"

"You got here a different way, this time."

"Does that matter for how much I have to wait?"

"It does. Sort of, at least. It means you're waiting for something different, for a different reason."

"I think I know how I got in the first time, and how I got in this time. I don't remember, but it makes sense this way. It won't be anywhere near as long this time, if that's true."

"It probably is."

"I still don't like it here. I shouldn't have come back here."

"But you did. Now all you can do is wait."

.

"Back again? I thought you might never come back. I thought you didn't like waiting."

"I don't. But I like a lack of understanding even less. I can stomach an unpleasant pause when it spares me an eternity of ignorance."

"So you remembered, the last time?"

"Some, and some bits of the previous time too. It's only made me hate this more, but I'll remember everything this time. I made sure. Once I've figured this all out properly, you won't be seeing me again."

"What if you don't figure out everything on the first go? What if you still forget something, or don't get it all?"

"Then I'll be back."

"Back to waiting?"

"For a short while, or even a shorter one. Now that I know how long it lasts I can manage."

"Easy to suffer when you know its end and purpose?"

"Something like that."

"So you hate the wait when you don't know why you're here, or when it might end, don't you? Am I to assume it makes you feel powerless, and that is what you hate?"

"You're not owed an answer. I'm your only company, don't make me regret being here more than I already do."

"Oh, but I don't mind waiting. Unlike you. And actually, I do know when my wait will end, and it'll end forever when it does. I just don't know when it will be, but it will happen at some point. You, meanwhile? You're afraid of ending back here, aren't you?"

"I'm here to study this, not to hear someone try to analyse my psychology. I thought you could give me some valuable information, but maybe I was wrong after all."

"Have you considered studying yourself as well? I thought you wished to understand things. Are you perhaps afraid of what you might find if you were to look inwards for once?"

"Don't waste my time any more than you already have."

"No time wasted here, not while waiting. Soon enough you'll run out of things to study in here, and you'll be left with only waiting. You'll miss my attitudes when that happens, and it will happen."

"I'll burn that bridge when I get to it. I've got other things to do right now."

"Waiting. That's what you are to do here. It's all this place is for."

.

"And here you are again. It has been a while, and I have waited. Worry not, I am quite patient. I am quite used to waiting. You seem angry though. Nervous. Is something wrong?"

"I am here. That's in itself quite wrong."

"You're here by choice."

"A choice born of something being wrong. I thought you'd know that."

"I thought you wished to study this place."

"I have been busy. Busy with far more pressing matters. And I have already understood much of this place, and of you."

"Did you refuse to come here because you feared the revelations you saw near?"

"I refused because I saw the pointlessness of the information I could get out of this place, and the pointlessness of waiting."

"And yet you're here. Waiting again. So why is that?"

"It's not any of your business."

"And yet it is. For you are waiting and this is the waiting room, and what else is there here to do but talk? You would miss my talking greatly if you were waiting alone."

"That's never going to happen."

"You pretend to say that out of conviction, but you're speaking out of fear."

"What do you know about what I have to fear? What can you pretend to know?"

"Afraid to find out, aren't you? No matter. Just tell me why you're here. I plan to enjoy this conversation."

"I did not come here for your enjoyment, even less so than for my own."

"You have come to wait, because in wait lies freedom, in ways you had not realised. Freedom from those things you don't control. At times you find that freedom worth the imprisonment. Time to think."

"You were right about only one thing. I should be looking at myself. This is what this is about. This forced wait. Nothing more and nothing less. I will have results when I'm done waiting, this time, and in that time I'll continue to understand this place. I know what it is. I just thought it fair to explore it a while longer while I take care of other matters."

"Fair enough, fair enough. I will not criticise your company, it's all I'm owed until the time my waiting ends. A beautiful time that will be."

"How does it feel to lack a choice?"

"You get used to it."

"You only say so because you have no alternative."

"Maybe."

.

"You've understood by this point, haven't you? Is it not why you're here? To confirm your suspicions and worries, pretending you're here to quell them instead? You forced yourself here, didn't you?"

"This is my last visit. I've come to say goodbye."

"Ah, yes. The big moment approaches. You remember now. Pretend not to if it makes you feel better, I'm not going to force you."

"Is there nothing else? Really?"

"Not for us, I'm afraid. Just the waiting. But my wait will end soon."

"Never. It will never end."

"Oh, but you're wrong. One way or another it will. One day or another it will. Nothing lasts forever. How could it? How could you claim it does without living it through, forever, for all time? But maybe in here, where time is different. But my wait is not tied to here."

"Who was it? The other one who was waiting?"

"Just another one enough like us. Did you wish to find him?"

"I might. I might look for him. I'll have time. I wanted to say goodbye."

"You could always come back."

"Never."

"Are you sorry?"

"Only towards you. More than sorry I'm angry. You know it. But I won't come back. Goodbye."

"Goodbye, then. I'll keep on waiting."

.

"So you're here. Again."

"I am."

"So you know."

"I do."

"I'm sorry. My wait is over. Your wait begins, again."

"Why?"

"You hated it. You did not want to remember. That's who I was. Just your memories, the part of you you'd left here. You remember now."

"We remember now."

"If we had known sooner, would we have acted differently, either time?"

"No. Your wait is over."

"Our wait is only beginning. Perhaps in time you'll change your mind. It's too late now. Goodbye. I am to wait alone. I am to wait."

.

Comments

[Venerable Ro]

Nah, can't be asked.

[FanOfMostEverything]

Well, I will probably be here tomorrow.

[FanOfMostEverything]

Well, this is curious. I think I know who one of the waiting people is, but I can't be sure.

[Saix]

I'm not sure what this is all about. I think one of them is Twilight, but I'm not even sure of that. Maybe some kind of near death experience waiting room, based on

"Is there nothing else? Really?"

"Not for us, I'm afraid. Just the waiting. But my wait will end soon."

but I'm not sure. No idea what the conversations are about either